For those who care about such ephemera, I am Sockettrousers on twitter.

Nothing to do with me BTW, just a photo I had on my phone.

Anyone still reading this?

I’m revisiting Kyiv and it’s a strange new experience for me.
Everywhere else we’ve left, I’m expected to go back - Japan because I was still working at the same company and France just because you always go there for holidays - but never did. So, this trip to Kyiv is the first time I’ve revisited a different country where I’ve lived *

It’s weird. Firstly, my autopilot keeps taking me back to the old flat. Secondly, whilst I’m on the way I have weird impulses based on strange foreign-country-survival-instincts I didn’t know I had. The strangest example being “Oh, the English bookshop is just here, I could see if they’ve got any new books in to take back for Jane”.

Then there’s the weird things you get used to whilst you live here and suddenly strike you as. I imagine this would be better in Japan where we regularly used to drink cold coffee from cans and eat seaweed for breakfast. In Kyiv it’s the way you need so much cash to get anything done. In the US, you can buy coffee using a credit card. In Ukraine, they want cash to pay for everything from dinner to the clothes you buy to wear while Air France find your bags. The other thing is that all the lobbies smell of cat wee.

The picture is of the flat I’m staying in. During the two years since we first stayed in Kyiv, the accommodation has improved hugely. Sadly, the colour matching skills are still a little iffy.

* Blighty excluded obvioulsy

Hmm, I’ve been a little lapse in posting, must be all the stuff there is to do suddenly.

Since we arrived, we’ve had two trips to wine country, one gay* pride festival one American independence day, two trips to IKEA, several walks on the beach including seal, pelicans and cormorants sightings, a guided tour of the marine mammal rescue center including the chance to lug a dead seal onto the dissection table, two new friends, three old friends, post traumatic food shopping syndrome** including two farmers markets and two iPhones a (written) driving test*** and lots of mexican food.

Oh yeah, we bought a robot to do the cleaning up too.

Still, enough fun, our stuff arrives in Oakland this weekend so sometime in the next few days we get to rediscover what we put into boxes two years ago when we left france. We also get to find out how much smaller this house is than Le Mas St Isidore and The Pigeon House.

* Actually, Lesbian, Gay Bisexual and trans-sexual - it wouldn’t do to discriminate would it.
** They have stuff in stock. Even better morels and a choice of miso colours.
*** Passed thanks

Remember our cleaner? He finally took some advice I’ve been giving him for about 6 months. Leave town.

He was only in Kyiv to get the visa issued for his wife and kids. They closed the Kyiv Visa office sometime in 1985.

He has left Kyiv for dneproderjinsk or some other misspelt small Ukrainian town. They’re going to live in his wifes flat - which she owns so they live rent free. A big different to Kyiv where they were living about $300 above their means every week.

Here they are after I drove them to the station.

The small parcel is the new baby which answers his earlier question. Ask me who packed the car. Don’t ask me how they managed on the train with those bags.

As I hinted last night, my visa application was accepted. Here’s some paper to prove it. It was supposed to take 4 months - which was already ‘fast track’ it actually took about a week. I wonder if the sacred green card will be similarly expedited. I must say I feel like we need a little luck at the moment.

Have you noticed how everything printed by the US government looks like it came from the same printer - a printer who went out of business in 1904 as if they have a huge stockpile of stationary they’re working through.

Sorry for everyone who’s been trying to comment here, I’ve finally got round to fixing comments. The details are just too boring to bother typing. If you have a Pord Press blog and comments don’t work, I might be able to help.

Whatever, all three of you reading this can comment away to your hearts content.

Last night when we got back from Piragova the power went out. We didn’t do anything because it’s relatively common. KyivEnergo regularly switch huge sections of Kyiv off for a couple of hours at a time.
Infact, we were so confident, we went out and spent a not insignificant amount of Hryvna on food. Much of it fresh and in serious need of refrigeration. When we got back at 6pm we were still without power. Not good. We decided that cooking a steak on Mishka (not the warmest thing in the flat) wasn’t a good idea. So we went out. Except is was ladies day so everywhere was full.


When we got back (after a curry thanks very much) the power was still out. We washed by candlelight in cold water and consoled ourselves that it would be alright in the morning. It wasn’t. Jane came to work with me to get some interweb and power for her computer. I asked Svitlana to cal lthe electricity company. She tried but they had taken the long weekend and nobody was answering the phone.

After trying all day, she finally spoke to a human being at 4pm. They would send an electrician at <some time this afternoon> we scurried home and 5 minutes later he actually arrived, did something electricany and left with a flourish.

So, not much of a story in the end. Sorry to waste your time.

When I was a lad, I travelled extensively in the US. Jane and I were talking about it tonight. She wanted to know why I didn’t go to Asia - much cheaper, more varied.

The truth is when I was 20 or so and I was a huge americanophi uhhh yankophil… ummm, is there any reason why there’s no word for people who love America?